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Lawrence Golan, D.M.A.

Conductor, Lamont Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Department Chair
Newman Center for the Performing Arts, Room 317
303-871-6909
lgolan@du.edu

Background:

As a violinist, Lawrence Golan earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the internationally renowned music program at Indiana University , and promptly was snapped up by the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra as principal second violinist. Later, he became concertmaster of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and Director of String Studies at the University of Southern Maine , where he was also hired to be Music Director and Conductor of the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra.

Biography:

Dr. Lawrence Golan is currently in his 11^th year as a professor at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music where he conducts the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre and leads one of the most distinguished and highly sought after graduate conducting programs in the United States. During his time in Denver, Golan has won seven consecutive Outstanding Merit Awards, six ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, and the Downbeat Magazine Award for Best College Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his academic work, Lawrence Golan is also a very active professional conductor. He is currently in his second season as the Helen N. Jewett Music Director of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, central Washington’s premier professional orchestra. During his highly successful inaugural season, Golan helped to grow the orchestra both artistically and financially. He has been praised for his varied, imaginative, and exciting programming and helped the YSO win an ASCAP Award for the Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. Golan’s appointment in Yakima comes on the heels of an equally successful four-year term as Resident Conductor of The Phoenix Symphony. That orchestra’s President and CEO Maryellen Gleason stated that Lawrence Golan was “unequivocally the best Resident Conductor The Phoenix Symphony ever had.” Music Director Michael Christie said that Golan “is a programmer of virtually unprecedented creativity and scope.” Several of the concerts that Golan programmed, conducted, and narrated with The Phoenix Symphony turned out to be the most financially successful and well-attended performances in the history of the orchestra, completely selling out triple concert sets in a 2200-seat hall. Golan continues to guest conduct professional orchestras, opera, and ballet companies in the United States and around the world. Having conducted in 25 U.S. states and 16 countries, recent engagements include performances in Boulder, Macon, Memphis, and Tucson as well as the Czech Republic, Italy, Korea, Taiwan, and a three-week tour of China with the American Festival Orchestra.

A native of Chicago, Lawrence Golan holds degrees in both conducting and violin performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music (B.M. and M.M.) and the New England Conservatory of Music (D.M.A.). In addition, he studied at all of the major conducting festivals including Aspen and Tanglewood, where in 1999 he was awarded the Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship. The long list of distinguished conductors with whom Dr. Golan studied includes Robert Spano, Jorma Panula, David Zinman, Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Murry Sidlin, and Harold Farberman.

Golan has recorded several professional CDs, both as a conductor and violinist. His recording of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 has been highly praised by critics: “This is a world-class recording. It is refreshing to hear a recording of a well-known work of concert repertoire done so honestly and so beautifully.” (Robin McNeil, In Denver Times). “It stands up to many more-familiar recordings.” (Richard Nilsen, The Arizona Republic). Golan’s most recent recording, and his first with the Lamont Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven 7 and Beethoven 7.1 by William Hill, will be released by Albany Records later this year.

Following in the footsteps of his father Joseph Golan, longtime Principal Second Violinist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lawrence Golan is also an accomplished violinist. He was Concertmaster of the Portland Symphony Orchestra for eleven years, and has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony. Golan’s scholarly-performing edition of the solo violin works of J. S. Bach that includes a handbook on Baroque Performance Practice, and The Lawrence Golan Violin Scale System are both published by Mel Bay Publications. His original composition Fantasia for Solo Violin is published by Ludwig Music.

Lawrence and his wife Cecilia, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, have been married since 2003. They have a wonderful daughter named Giovanna.

lawrencegolan.com